Henry is correct, big dumb,but effeciant, diode lasers.
K
On Thu, Oct 15, 2020 at 3:34 PM Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
On Thu, 15 Oct 2020, William Claybaugh wrote:
You sure those are diodes? All the one’s I’ve seen were FEL’s.
Probably, as Ken wrote, diode-pumped fiber lasers. My understanding (from
a considerable distance -- not something I really follow) is that they are
now considered much more straightforward and much less cranky than FELs --
routine engineering rather than experimental toys.
(Yes, laser diodes are now routinely used to pump other kinds of lasers;
flashtubes etc. are pretty much gone. Here coherence doesn't matter --
the significant thing is that infrared laser diodes are by far the most
efficient light sources ever, 60%+ DC-to-photons. They're also easy to
drive, relatively easy to cool, and long-lived if not abused. And if you
don't need coherent, big efficient water-cooled diode arrays are cheap
off-the-shelf commercial products.)
Henry